reVAMPED
by ellymelly
Summary: via request of Holmen. Nikola and John are present for a NUBBIN HUNT : Characters: Helen/John/Nikola/Ashley/Will/Henry
1. Counting Spiders

Nikola reclined in Helen's chair, feet on her table as he counted the spiders making webs on her ceiling.

"Is there any possibility," she started, forced to retreat to the couch, "that you might refrain from doing that?" The reports in her hand kept sliding, getting themselves out of order despite her efforts. It was her fault – cheap paper. The Sanctuary had been put on a budget since the city pursued her for damages after an incident involving a certain werewolf on the loose.

"Never interrupt a genius," he hissed back, continuing his counting. "Not if you want their help."

"Firstly," Helen gave up on the files, throwing them onto the low coffee table where they flayed out and fell onto the floor in a mess, "it's a favour that you _owe_ me and secondly, you're technically a _dead_ genius and thus excluded from that clause."

Nikola sighed, recrossing his legs. Helen really wished that he wouldn't do that either. She hated cleaning rubber marks off the wood after his visits.

"He's late, as usual," said Nikola, glancing at the clock on the wall behind Helen. It was half-past eleven in the morning, a full two hours after the arranged time.

"You know John," replied Helen, moving to the silver drinks tray.

"Bit early?" Nikola was more amused than concerned. Indeed, his sideways grin appeared to beg for a glass.

"I am immortal," Helen pulled the stopper off the port, "it's not like it's going to kill me."

"Or me..."

The liquor was on the lip of the crystal, threatening to trickle into the glass when the door bell echoed through the hallways. Helen straightened the decanter. "Oh well," she set it back down.

*~*~*

"An _expedition_?" John leant against the wall between the two windows. The curtains framed his height, lushly draped by his side. "Are you being serious?"

Will, Ashley, Helen and Nikola were scattered about the rest of the office. Ashley, like her father, chose to remain standing with her arms folded aggressively over her chest and her short, straight-cut blonde hair draped over the tops of her shoulders.

"_Hunting_ expedition," she corrected her father. "Should be just your style."

"I see she has your tone, Helen," John smirked. "I don't mean to ask the obvious question – but why are we here?" He waved a hand vaguely in Nikola's direction.

"Believe it or not," began Helen, "these things are not easy to catch. They inhabit a unique and vicious ecosystem which I am hesitant to charge into, guns blazing."

"Claws though, you're okay with?" Nikola flashed his vampire side quickly for his own amusement. Ashley looked horrified by the transformation, having never seen a real vampire before.

"This was a bad idea..." Helen muttered. On their own, Nikola and John were perfectly presentable but in each other's company they devolved into primitives squabbling for something shiny – in this case, _her._ "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Wait a minute," Nikola slid his feet off the desk leaving a dark curved streak. "You brought us all the way down here," for him, at least, it had been a long sequence of planes, trains, buses and footpaths to Helen's door all of which he despised.

John, of course, had flashed into existence just outside the front gates. "It wasn't so far," he cut in.

"Nubbins," said Ashley suddenly, interrupting the two men. "We're hunting for Nubbins and mum says we need your help – whatever that might mean. She's usually right about these things, though."

"That a scientific name?" Nikola scoffed.

"No..." replied Ashley quietly, a little embarrassed.

"They're sinister enough," said Helen, "even for you Nikola."

"All right," he said, his voice turning to silk. "Where exactly will this hunt take place?"

He hadn't expected Helen's eyes to shine with such menace. He had forgotten the Helen that he had watched hunt monsters in her youth.

"Right here..." she whispered. "A colleague of mine sent me a shipment of abnormal creatures he wished me to study. They arrived and were left in the foyer - unattended. By the time I got home, they had gnawed their way out of the box and set themselves loose in the house."

"Henry's fault," Ashley added.

"That's enough, Ashley," her mother scorned. Her daughter had been having a go at poor Henry all day. "The short of it is, we have a pair – probably more by now, of very dangerous pests deciding best how to escape and cause mischief and if you keep smiling, Nikola, I will inform _every_ secret organisation of your miraculous resurrection."

"Capture two small, rodent-like creatures?" John smiled. "Give Nikola and I an hour."

Helen was shaking her head. "We're _all _going to do this. I am not in the mood to sweep bits of you from the floor."


	2. Awkward

"Whose fault was this again?"

"Don't you start..." said Henry wearily. Will squished up next to Ashley, who had been hassling Henry for several minutes as part of her long term punishment strategy. Once upon a time she had been quite fond of Nubbins – right up until one of them ate through her favourite gun grip. Now she found that her affection on the matter had waned.

"Any luck yet?" Will set his hand on Henry's shoulder. Henry's computer screen had made the corner of the room a blue-ish glow which flickered every time he brought up a new security screen.

"No. The buggers chewed through three of the surveillance cameras so we've got no eyes on the top level. Sensors are still working – but I don't think they're capable of detecting Nubbins."

"That smoke?" Ashley wrinkled her nose.

"Could be," Henry frowned. "Nubbin had a party behind the remote server which ended in a similar way to last year's firework display."

"So, progress is being made." Ashley grinned at Will, but Henry remained distressed.

"How so?"

"Well, one down, one to go..."

"I may not be a genius on abnormals," Henry admitted, "but the walls sound like they're eating themselves so I'd say we got more than one to worry about now."

*~*~*

Nikola bent his exceptionally long figure in half as he inspected the box in the hallway. James paced around behind him, following a trail of chewed cardboard that led through the hall and into the house. From what they could gauge, the 'Nubbins' showed characteristics similar to RedBull-infused mice, chewing their way through obstacles.

"She should have bought a mousetrap," muttered Nikola, prodding the chewed corner of the box.

"I think that it's possible, old friend," replied John wickedly, "that we _are_ the trap."

"Then we're not getting paid enough..." Nikola was now on the floor, trying to see in through the hole. The interior of the box was mostly dark, except for the small shards of light streaming in through the occasional hole. It was empty, as far as he could tell. "Shame," he said, "I guess I was hoping there'd be a few left for us."

"Ha... you think the great Magnus would call for an easy task?" John plucked a large piece of cardboard from the floor and examined the tear marks around its edge.

"I thought she might have invited us for the company."

"We make poor companions, the both of us. Entertainment, maybe – but I believe that we're here to work on this occasion."

"_What_ are you doing?" quipped Tesla, as John sniffed the cardboard.

"Mind your own business, genius."

"Play nice..." said a voice, slinking into the main hall. Helen's heels clicked over the wooden entrance, drumming out her approach as the two men broke their glare and turned to face her. "Don't make me separate you."

"Good of you to finally join us," said Nikola.

"I've just been with Henry. He tells me that we're already looking for a rather large colony. From this point, nobody goes in or out of the building using _any method_," she looked particularly at John who let a grin creep over his features. "Nikola," she waited for his attention to wander in her direction. When she was certain that his black eyes and half-smile were focused, she continued, "I want you to follow Ashley down to basement and inspect the power conduits and our generators. These things seem to have a taste for warmth so it's a good bet that you'll find a few snuggling in a corner."

Nikola couldn't think of a worse companion. Helen's child had made a point of expressing her intense dislike of him and had gone so far as to say that she would, 'like to see him on a spike' sometime in the future. Not a good start to a relationship, really.

"Fine, whatever," he muttered, brushing past Helen on his way out.

"You," she said to John, once Nikola had left the room, "are with me."

*~*~*

The nethers of Helen's castle were as he remembered them – dank, dark and unpleasant. Extensive trails of cords had been crudely tacked on to the stone, unwisely allowed to drape toward trickling rivers of water running over the wall from above.

Ashley had not said a word to Nikola as they made their way through the serious of tunnels. She carried two traps with rattled with her step and a flashlight which she continually tracked over the ground in front.

Ducking to avoid a low pipe, Nikola wondered how they were going to catch anything whilst making so much noise.

"You are nothing like Helen," he noted, always several steps behind her. The scruffy blonde exhaled irritably and flashed the torch in his direction, bringing them to a stop.

"This will go much easier if you don't speak," she said, shining the light directly into his eyes. They seemed to enlarge as she watched, becoming more globe-like.

"Just trying to make conversation," he shrugged. "Work on my people skills." There was a foul fume on the air – below detectible smell. He could feel it like a sticky substance clogging his sinuses and making him dizzy. It reminded him of high altitudes where the chest became heavy and thoughts blurred. Ashley was not immune to the effects – although was apparently unaware of them. He had seen her stumble several times and linger on corners, searching for the correct route when her knowledge of the house was presumably grand.

"Lost?" he asked her once. She merely growled and promptly made a choice, leading them further into the din.

Finally, they came upon a cylindrical contraption that resembled a generator. It was the hub of all the electrical wires which streamed into the depths of the structure, nesting in warm swirls of plastic and copper.

"No sign of Nubbins," said Ashley, openly relieved. "Last time they tore the place apart."

That accounted for the poor repair, thought Tesla, who had already gauged that the entire thing would breakdown in less than two years.

Nikola and Ashley bent down to the main control panel together, and gave each other a fright. It was Ashley who backed off, realising that this was probably the reason her mother had sent Nikola down here in the first place – to inspect the generator.

"My, my..." he said after a while. "Something's been having its fun."

Ashley reluctantly returned to the suited-man's side, leaning in to see a serious of teeth marks that had attempted to gnaw through the man conduit.

"Very recent," he added. "I'd say your little critter is still around." Indeed, he had already seen several sets of eyes blinking along the wall behind the generator.

"Pardon?" Ashley asked, genuinely forgetting Tesla's first answer. She couldn't place what was wrong with her – but there was defiantly something amiss – especially as she had caught herself _twice_ staring at the unnerving man's well – the point was, she didn't do it voluntarily.

"'scuse me," Nikola had been trying to get her attention for some time. "If you're not going to listen then there's no point in me explaining."


	3. Interesting

"Dude..." Henry offered Will an annoyed glare. The man was practically laying on his shoulder trying to get a look at the security feed. The screens were blurry, black, white and not particularly helpful.

Will frowned and pulled back a little. So far all they could really make out were Tesla and Ashley pawing over the generator.

"They're invisible – by definition we ain't gonna be able to make out much. I'm going to head up and see if I can bring the cameras on the first floor back online. Whose idea was it to bring these nasty vermin back into the country anyway?"

"Whose idea was it to open the box and let them out?" Will answered his question with another one, folding his arms with a frown.

"Aw come on, it's not like you guys put a sticker on the box or anything. I was out back in the lab – no-one told me there was a delivery of sharp toothed critters coming. Besides, I didn't open the box – they chewed their way out."

"Same difference," Will shrugged, picking out a nice little tranquilliser gun.

"Hey – you're not using that, are you?" Will's eyebrows lofted high. That would be the general assumption, considering he was loading the weapon. "She isn't ready yet..."

"You were using it earlier!" Will protested, slipping it into his belt.

"_Testing_ it," Henry muttered, snatching the gun back before standing up to follow Will up to the top level. "You'll hurt her."

"I'll - ? It's a _gun_ not a girl..."

* * *

"Ms Magnus, I don't mean to be rude but – would you mind moving your hand?" Nikola could be tactful when he wanted to but at the moment he was trying to work and Ashley's hand on his back was neither helpful nor good for his long term survival.

_Jesus fucking Christ_ Ashley thought, immediately withdrawing her hand and setting it on her hip instead.

What was her hand even _doing_ touching the vampire? It's not like they were friendly. Or even on speaking terms. All she knew of him was that he was a friend of her mother's and not a particularly good one considering he'd been missing for the better part of a century.

Nikola pulled a small ream of electrical tape out of his pocket and started winding it around the main power cord. It would be good enough for the time being.

"Is that going to last?" Ashley frowned.

Nikola cut through the tape with his claws, smoothing it all out. He always did a good job with electrical things.

"It'll last longer than the rest of it. I don't know who your mother has had down here but I'm surprised you have lights at all."

"That would be Hank."

"The puppy – nice," Nikola sighed, standing back up.

"Mum says that he's better at it than you."

Nikola scoffed loudly, leaning back against the wall and ever so slightly closer to Ashley. "She lied," he drawled in that silken voice he was so famous for, always laced with remnants of his Serbian accent.

Something small and furry squeaked above Nikola. A Nubbin had been trying to escape by hopping along one of the wires dangling from the roof – slipped and caught it between its sharp teeth. Those teeth bit through too far and the fluffy thing received a small jolt of electricity, making it let go and fall onto Nikola's shoulder – a little smoke rising from its fur.

"Ew..." Nikola hissed, picking the dazed creature up and holding it aloft. "This is the great and evil predator that your mother is so worried about? She dragged me over four continents to play mousetrap to her rodents..."

It squeaked, turning invisible but not escaping Nikola's claws.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Ashley had to drag her eyes back up from Tesla's – well – from Tesla. Bloody Nubbins.

* * *

"Found one..." Nikola announced, dropping it into the glass case. They were in the zoo section of the Sanctuary – a place Nikola was sure Helen had thought about locking him in from time to time.

Bigfoot simply tapped – no – _hit_ him on the shoulder hard enough to slam his forehead into the glass. Nikola straightened up, rubbing his head.

"Aw... it is adorable," Ashley admitted, bending down to tap gently at the glass. "Poor little thing."

Nikola frowned at the red patch on his forehead. Nice. He reached forward and took Ashley by the scruff of her leather jacket

"Come on, I don't want this to take the rest of the century."

Ashley spun – kicked him square in the chest and threw him back. He landed on the dusty floor, the feisty little Magnus standing over him.

Lesson one: don't touch Ashley's jacket without permission.

"Yo dude, let's go..." Ashley grinned, strolling out of the room casually.

Nikola growled, dusting himself up.

* * *

John had his head to the wall, listening to claws and teeth chew at the Giprock coating. They'd be into the plaster soon, tearing at any insulation and dragging it back to make nests just like rats.

"How many?" asked Helen, pacing along the length of her good dining room. She wasn't particularly thrilled at the prospect of ripping down all the walls.

"Oh... dozens..." John replied lazily, pushing back off the wall. "I didn't know that you were on speaking terms with the vampire."

"_Nikola_," she corrected him, "has proved very helpful lately."

"He wants something," he quipped, tapping the wall to test its strength.

"He always wants something, but at least I know what I'm dealing with. Nikola hasn't changed." John, on the other hand, Helen could never be quite sure about. Sometimes she thought that he still loved her, most of the time she couldn't tell and that worried her.

"Is it true that he had you back in Oxford, that weekend I went to Paris?"

Helen's head literally fell back in a sigh. She almost wished they'd _both_ get over her. It was like a bloody competition that had gone on for centuries.

"Do we have to do this now?" she sighed heavily. "My Sanctuary is being eaten from the inside."

"James said that he saw the two of you leave his party, arm in arm, I believe it was. An engaged woman on the arm of another gentleman. Dear me, Helen – whatever would your betrothed think?"

"My _betrothed_," she drawled, backing away from the wall, sizing it up. "Was off whoring his way through Paris."

"I didn't sleep with them, Helen..." John laid back against the wall just beside where Helen was staring.

"Sometimes, I think I might have preferred it if you had." And no, she hadn't answered John's accusation. "Listen..."

"No," John drawled, "you listen."

Helen raised her gun and fired it at the wall beside John, chunks of plaster spraying off as she created a sizable hole. A few Nubbins tumbled out of it, squeaking unhappily.

"Mum... Dad?" Ashley appeared at the door, drawn there by the noise.

Nikola cruised in beside her. From here all Nikola could see was John covered in white plaster and Helen holding a smoking gun straight at him. "Interesting..." Was this how the Magnus's played happy families?


End file.
